What Does Jordan Peterson Say a Story Is?

Jordan B. Peterson says a story is a description of identity, an idea he thinks is right. It was a hypothesis in Maps of Meaning and has been a predicate of his work ever since, including We Who Wrestle with God.

People seem to have two ways of representing knowledge. The scientific endeavor gives a robust description of the facts that make up the world. A story informs a mode of being, meaning patterns of attention and action. In a movie or a work of fiction, the author puts the protagonist in a variety of situations. The aim becomes visible there. The world the character inhabits becomes understandable by inferring the aim, and the character's emotions follow from understanding the aim.

The same route explains someone else and the self. Understanding begins with what a person is aiming at, what they are up to, what they attend to, what they focus on, what they devote their resources to, and what they act in relationship to.